Florida Air Museums
 

Heading to Florida in March

I hope to avoid The Mouse so anyone got any recommendations for Air Museums I can go while the rest of the family disappears into a Theme park?

www.valiantaircommand.com

With an airshow 15/16/17 March.

Museum is great - much more than you would expect to see just looking at the outside, and much cheaper than theme parks!

Half an hour or so east of Orlando.

NAS Pensacola. Jacksonville.
Valiant Air Command.
Miami cargo area for old derelicts.
Kennedy Space Centre. Check NASA website for launches.
Rgds.
alt

Many thanks

"Miami cargo area for old derelicts." - sounds like my sort of place!!!

www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/

Limited opening days until April.

Visit Kissimmee Airport. There is a museum of sorts there with interesting stuff - its signposted off the 192. You can also nab a Mustang/Harvard/Bell47 trip from the same part of the airfield. Stallion 51 is well worth a look, as is my house if you need digs: Diamond Nine Villa. Luxury Disney Villa in Kissimmee

I think the days of cockroach corner at Miami are sadly long gone, you might see the odd DC-6 if you are very lucky. Opa Locka might be slightly better.

Kermit Weekes' Fantasy of Flight at Polk City is closed to the public but you may still be able to get round; worth contacting them and seeing if anything is possible. Edit: just noted posting above - I thought it was closed but if not then go!

Jack Brown's seaplanes at Winter Haven for a ride or even a seaplane rating in a J3 Cub...

Agree with post 2,

​​​​​​http://www.valiantaircommand.com/

a great visit and if you choose the right day you'll get a volunteer whose a mine of information to take you round.

I'd second Kennedy Space Center. Even if there are no launches planned the museum and outdoor rocket garden are quite impressive if you're into that sort of thing (obviously more rocket/space oriented than aircraft). One of the surviving Saturn V rockets is located there.

They have 2 seat P-40 you can get rides in now as well, got its cert only in October.


https://www.warbirdadventures.com


and Kermit Weeks place had to have limited opening to the public to retain their museum status and associated tax breaks

Ttfn

Monitor NASA launch schedule from KSC (and the neighboring AF station).
Good places to view the launch are:

1. Cocoa beach. Not the closest place but very comfortable. You may even take a seat at a bar on a pier and watch the start. Or just sit or walk enjoying the sandy beach.

2. Entrance to Port Canaveral.
Take Rd 528 from Orlando until Indian River where it becomes 1A1, then cross this river, then cross Merritt Island and Banana river. Descending from the bridge over Banana make a 270-deg right turn and take a road to Port Canaveral Cruise terminal (just 500 m or so). You will immediately see cars parked everywhere (of those who arrived earlier).

Unfortunately, the US launchs are quite unpredictable and often re-scheduled shortly before the pre-defined time. Patience is needed. I recall I was making 3 consecutive trips every next night (in late 90's) to show the launch to my (teenage at that time) son. Ironically, I was not able to bring him to Baikonur (because of security).

As you are in the Orlando area I second Valiant Air Command and the Kennedy Space Centre too. Well worth visiting.

Standing next to the Lunar Rocket.....and seeing just how big the thing is....as well as long.....is worth the trip all by itself!

Remembering that most of that engineering was done with slide rules and the flight was done using 64K Memory re-programmable computers/calculators.


https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Aerospace.htm

Seconded. Wish I'd seen/heard one launch...

I regret not seeing one the Moon Flights launch or a Space Shuttle launch.....that would have been a real thrill!

I did get to see the 747 piggybacking the Shuttle fly by....which was pretty cool too!

Never got to see a Saturn V launch (the last Saturn V launched while I was still in high school), but my job in the early 1980's frequently had me visiting the Pratt facility outside Palm Beach Florida. As a result I was able to witness a couple Shuttle launches. About the closest you could get (without credentials of some sort) was across the Indian River from the cape - ~10 miles away from the shuttle launch pad. Drove up the night before, parked along the Indian River and slept in the car for the shortly after sunrise launch (yes, there was a large crowd).
It was impressive - we were able to see the Shuttle for about a minute before it disappeared above the high cloud deck - which corresponded almost exactly with the when the sound got to where we were. Even that far away, the sound was overwhelming and you could feel the pounding on your chest - in many ways the sound was more impressive than the sight.

Roughly ten years ago GE had a CF6 operators conference in Orlando that I attended. One afternoon, we adjourned early and GE bused us all to Kennedy Space Center - we toured the facility - and then had dinner literally sitting under the Saturn V :ok:

I saw the first Shuttle launch after the Challenger accident, we were with a lot of other people on the beach by Patrick AFB, maybe 20 miles away; sound was impressive even at that distance, as was the collective exhaling of breath by the crowd as we saw the SRBs peel away...

Go to the theme parks. Your children and / or grandchildren will appreciate you so much more for sharing their fun days.

And the thrill rides at Universal are f....... awesome. Best fun this side of the Mach loop.